Forca, rampí and ganxo (pitchfork, rake and hook)

What is

Tools era and collect:

• Forca: stick finished in two or more points, to lift and remove straw and grass (DCVB, also Balearic Islands).
• Rampí: long handle with a crossbar from which wooden or iron spikes protrude, to collect straw, ears or mowed grass (DCVB, includes Mall.).
• Ganxo (Mall.): rake with six or more tines to collect clods, cover anthills or remove manure (DCVB).

How is

• Fork: made of wood, often with a single forked branch (to verify species in Mallorca), or with iron forks.
• Rampí: crossbar with spikes, long handle. The Sineu workshop forges them today.
• Ganxo: iron spikes, stronger than rampí.

How is fa

• Wooden fork: chosen and straightened branch (process: to be verified).
• Rampí and ganxo with iron spikes: forging. See ferro forjat ; Today Eines Mallorquines (Sineu) sells rampins.

Com s'usa

• In the threshing floor, after batre : raising straw, windowing (separating grain and straw to the wind) and stacking.
• The rampí gathers the beaten harvest; the ganxo works soil and manure.
• Forners: a two-prong fork puts the firewood into the oven (Balearic Islands). See pastera and forn shovel .
• Palma glaziers: a fork of about 90 cm holds the piece by the neck (DCVB). See glass buffet .

Vocabulary

• forca — gallows with two or more prongs.
• forcó — each end of the fork.
• rampí — threshing floor rake.
• ganxo — iron spiked rake (Mall.).

-ventar —winnow the grain.

• rampí (fig., Mall., Men.) — bad-tempered person: "aquesta al·lota is a rampí."
• forca (mowing machine, Mall.) — rake-type piece that separates the cut harvest.

History

• 1449: "ferros de rampins" in a Valencian document (DCVB).
• 19th-20th centuries: tools from each Majorcan era until mechanization (1950-1960, to be verified).
• Today: rampins and ganxos are still in orchards and farms; forged in Sineu.

On veure'n

• Museum of Mallorca, ethnological section (Wall) .
• Eras of cases of possession .

Why is it design

• Wood as it grows: the forca takes advantage of the natural bifurcation of the branch.
• Material comb: each tine separation for a material (straw, clod, manure).
• Light, repairable and local.

For the project

• “La era” photography series: forca, rampí, ganxo, garbell .
• Rampí forged in Sineu with local mango as a contemporary garden object.

Sources

• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=forca
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=ramp%ED
• dcvb.iec.cat/results.asp?Word=ganxo
• einesmallorquines.com

Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.

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